We challenged our authors to come up with drabble based on our next anthology theme, the Sea. The only requirements were it must be 100 words, it must involve water and be horror in nature. Here is what the top four came up with! We hope you enjoy.
Like what you see? Don't forget to check out these authors' links and profiles.
Red Water by Tim Mendees:
Drip... Drip... Drip...
Why won't the water stop?
The chugging rhythm of the ancient pipes throbs and pulses through my brain. Each clank and grind a sledgehammer blow, each scrape and squeak a cold blade down my spine.
I've tried everything to make the water stop.
Drip... Drip... Drip...
Each splash of fluid, each tinkle in the plughole makes my stomach lurch with nausea.
That awful smell of copper, that rancid metallic taint. Each scent a sensory assault.
Drip... Drip... Drip...
Why can't the plumber fix the taps?
Why won't the water stop?
… Why is the water red? ...
Tim Mendees is a writer from Macclesfield in the UK who specialises in weird and unsettling horror stories. He has been published recently in a number of anthologies and has several projects in the pipeline. Tim is also a goth DJ, crustacean and cephalopod enthusiast, and the host of a series of live readings of his work. You can keep up to date with his literary misadventures here: https://www.facebook.com/goatinthemachine
Sea Bird, by William Wellman
It cried above her in the day and screamed at her in the night, although she could not always see it in the sky. She prayed for a squall or a storm to drown it out, but the shore was still around her cottage, and that made it worse.
She needed quiet, she thought, rummaging through the drawer for the flintlock. If she could quiet a drunkard sailor of a husband, she could quiet a seagull.
“I, I, I.” The bird shrieked outside her window, with unseeing white eyes and decomposing feathers aflutter. “I saw! I saw what you did!”
William A. Wellman writes queer horror and is terrified of what the spiders are planning. Connect on Twitter at @WilliamAWellman.
The Swimming Hole by K.G.Lewis
“Ready, set, go,” the children yelled, leaping from the pier and into the murky water of the pond.
“Don’t go too far,” their mother says, spreading a towel over the weathered planks.
Their playful splashing brings a smile to my face. It’s been years since anyone has visited the old swimming hole. I watch them for hours until their mother says it’s time to leave. That makes me sad. I don’t want them to go. I want them to stay there forever. I reach out and grab the ankle of the nearest child, dragging him down into the dark depths.
K.G. Lewis is an American horror author and tabletop game designer residing in Atlanta, GA. His first collection of stories, "Through the Mole Hole: Strange Stories for Peculiar People", was published in 2019. One of the stories from that collection, "The Doctor is In", was featured on an episode of The NoSleep Podcast. His second collection of stories, "One Eye Open: Strange Stories for Peculiar People Volume 2" will be released in the summer of 2020.
The End. By David Green
You cry for air, but water fills your lungs. You choke. Fingers claw through thick liquid as you descend.
Will your dream end? You hope, but it feels real as your limbs freeze and a weight presses against your chest. Fire sears your lungs and each ragged gasp your body attempts drives daggers into your back.
Darkness devours you, vision dims. You sink, your limbs ten tonne weights dragging you further into the abyss.
You shake, willing yourself to wake.
It isn’t a dream; you remember as you drown. It’s a nightmare, the one you always feared.
It’s your end.
David Green is a fiction writer living in County Galway, Ireland. Having been told repeatedly of having a fear of clowns that he can't remember when growing up, David still isn't sure about his feelings on them, but felt ready to write about all things horror and circus related. David has been published online with Nymphs and Ink Pantry, and in print with Nocturnal Faeries and Black Hare Press.